There would be such an outcry of rage if you did this in the UK or America, though there are only hundreds of millions of people living there not over a billion. So for sure, the Chinese have valid reasons for wanting population control. For years, they suffered great social woes due to over populating. While this might be an unfortunate remedy, it has proven effective for helping the average person's lifestyle, as in now there is not as much poverty and starvation due to having too many children in the family.

Dardaigh, it's easy for us to be judgemental of them for their child policy - limiting families to one child (or two children with exceptions). However, keep in mind there are over a billion people in China. And, there are more limited resources as a result. Can you imagine if there were a billion people living within the borders of the United States? There would be rampant poverty and starvation. Even now, with around 400 million people, many people live in poverty conditions. In my state of Georgia, it's estimated that over 30% of children go to bed hungry every night due to lack of houeshold money to buy food. And, we are considered a fairly prosperous state. I would imagine this was not an easy decision for the Chinese government to come to. And, I know for many Chinese families who want to expand, this is not an easy decision to live with either.

While it might seem extreme to mandate that a married couple only have one child, you should remember that household size might actually be up to five or more people. For instance, a man and woman plus child and grandparents living in the same house. That's a huge financial burden for the working adults to care not only for themselves and the child, but also a previous generation. Though more recently, Chinese households have been shrinking and single person households becoming more common.